Is my body more secure in maintanance?!

janettebishop940

Of course I could be at more of a deficit than I realise or is there another reason to lose faster now? Will I suddenly put more on? Anyone experienced this when going to maintenance? Is it just a case of my body being happy I'm eating more and so feels safer to not conserve fat anymore? I was expecting to put on the 5lbs glycogen replenishment so I'm a bit thrown.

Domane1963

I started maintenance three weeks ago and lost a further 3lbs in the first week! lol But I've gradually upped my calories and I only fluctuate within a pound or so. I still weigh daily to monitor myself and I need to do this for the foreseeable until I can start to relax and truly believe that I'm not going to go all weak on myself and start gorging again like I have in the past. If I eat a lot of carbs I regain water weight for 24 hours until they are digested but then that goes again. I haven't had a glycogen store gain and there are quite a few of us who expected to and didn't.....

arrseegee

It's very likely that the MFP calculation for maintenance isn't correct for you - the purpose of maintaining is exactly that: to maintain your weight. If you're still dropping then you need to add a bit more and work out what is a good calorie intake for you to aim for. But ideally you will not need to track your calories every day for the rest of your life, so part of achieving maintenance is also to work out what amount of food feels right, keeps the scales constant and gives you enough nutrition (e.g. not just calories but also allows you to consume reasonable levels of essential vitamins and minerals) to be healthy.

TavistockToad

i have found MFP maintenance is about 400 cals out for me - it says i should maintain on NET 1600 cals, but it is actually NET 2000

PaytraB

I lost another couple of pounds when I went on maintenance as well. MFP's calories for maintenance were too low for me. I tried the TDEE method of figuring out what my maintenance calories were and it's working well.
You'll have to experiment a little to find what your calorie level is. Figure out how much you're still losing a week, calculate how much that is per day and how many calories per day you'd increase to hit maintenance and up your calories to that. See what happens over the next few weeks. Adjust as required.

Maintenance can be tricky.

janettebishop940

Wow. 400 is a lot. I hope mine's out by that much! I'm thinking its the difference between sedentary and lightly active. I think as a stay at home mum I might be somewhere in between the two. I wonder why mfp gets it right for weight loss and wrong for maintenance?

arrseegee

Wow. 400 is a lot. I hope mine's out by that much! I'm thinking its the difference between sedentary and lightly active. I think as a stay at home mum I might be somewhere in between the two. I wonder why mfp gets it right for weight loss and wrong for maintenance?

Because maintenance is one number, and weight loss occurs whenever your net calories fall below that number. If your maintenance intake should be 1600 it doesn't matter if you eat 1300 or 1000 calories per day you're going to lose weight eventually.

cwolfman13

If you're still losing then you're not eating a maintenance level of calories...also, this is often when a lot of "non-believers" have their come to Jesus moment and realize that MFP is in fact designed for you to eat back exercise calories...they just eat to MFP's goal and keep exercising and keep losing weight because they've never figured out that in fact...yes...you are supposed to eat back exercise calories with MFP.

janettebishop940

I found mfp could predict my weight loss correctly and consistently so it should be just a case of adding on 500 cals a day (lb a week) to reach maintenance?

PaytraB

In theory, yes. But it doesn't work out quite as cleanly as that. So much depends on your activity level, your metabolism, etc. You'll find that with MFP as a guideline, you'll have to adjust your allowance to find what works for you.
As you said, your activity level is probably between 2 of MFP's levels, so you won't quite fit into their specific calorie goals.
I found that eating at a level for a month, then weighing myself, let me see whether I should add calories or not. From the amount of weight I lost in that month, I could make a rough calculation of how many more calories per day would stop that loss. Then I tried that calorie allowance for a month, weighed myself, repeat.......
I've been on maintenance for 7 months now and have been stable in weight for the past 2 months. It takes awhile to find the correct balance for you.
Don't be afraid to add a few calories and try things out.

janettebishop940

Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone and good luck on your journeys.